Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice – Latest blog posts, footage, Famitsu preview

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice @ Official blog

June 2nd

On Thursday, it’s Ms. Akitsuki (in charge of special effects) who wrote a blog post. She describes herself as the voice of reason amidst the “madness” of the other developers. She also compares her job (special effects) to the one of someone making sure the snack table is always full of snacks.

She explains that for the Divination Séance, they first thought of puppet posession and ghosts, but both ideas were rejected due to them being too “out there” and downright creepy. The pictures below showcase those two ideas, but also some examples of special effects to be found in the game:

Source: official blog
Translation by: Rubia Ryu the Royal

Head after the break for the rest of this post!

June 6th

The latest blog post is by M. Fukuda (planning, scenario), who came to talk about the scenario (without spoiling it, obviously). He details the process for writing the story:

• Brainstorming: the scenario team (led by Takeshi Yamazaki) starts by chosing the game’s overall theme and its settings. After that, they throw out any ideas they have (such as a case about the Olympics Games, an illegal underground court, or having a zombie stand as a witness). Naturally, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice is the 6th entry in the series: they can’t just do whatever they want. That’s why they look specifically for ideas that build on the fundamentals of the series, while feeling surprising and original. To do so, they go and do some research on the previous entries.

• Planning: once they have the overall theme and concept, they start by deciding the overall story for each episode. They also try to figure out how level design should be (such as difficulty, for example), what events should take place (but also when, and where), how the story should unfold, where should they try to surprise the players (plot twists), and more. Once it’s done, the whole team review them, points out any issues, and more. Those discussions take a lot of time, but they are required for the project to move to the next phase.

• Scenario writing: each of the writers have their own strengths and weaknesses: some are better with conversations, while others are better at comedy, not to mention those who do know how to put together a great mystery plot. There’s many (lively) discussions between the various writers and the main writer, which help make the story even better.

• Presentation: the game needs graphics, music, sound effects, and many other things along with the story to come alive. The better the direction and presentation, the brighter the story will shine.

According to M. Fukuda, all this is done in a very logical way, in a clear order. He likens scenario writing to the basic kata of karate. But obviously, they’re trying to make something unique, so they also need both great ideas and passion. Whether or not they managed to create something unique is something fans will have to see for themselves on Thursday!

The next blog post will be by Motohide Eshiro (Director).

Source: official blog
Translation by: Ash

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice @ Denjin Getcha

Here’s the recording for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice segment from the latest episode of Denjin Getcha, which aired last Thursday. It does feature some gameplay footage, but nothing new was shown.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice @ Famitsu

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice will be featured in Famitsu magazine this week. There will be a recap of previously revealed details, but also info about the previous entries in the series, the results of the Famitsu survey, and finally, the second part of the interview with the creators.

Here’s the preview rom Famitsu magazine:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice (3DS) comes out on June 9th in Japan, and in September in Europe and North America.

Source: Famitsu